Voyaging

The Down East Loop - Day 7

We made it, pulling in to the Port of Quebec Marina just before noon today, the end of the first leg of the epic Cutwater 28 Down East Loop voyage that started 455 miles ago in New York City.

When last heard from we were in the little French Quebec town of Chambly. From there we cruised several hours down the beautiful Richelieu River to Sorel, where we made a right turn to enter the massive St Lawrence Seaway. What a change. Instead of passing kids tubing behind 20-foot ski boats, we were trying to stay out of the way of massive tankers that looked the size of aircraft carriers. Then after several hours of cruising easily at 18 knots we ran through the very scary Richelieu Rapids in a narrow stretch of the St Lawrence where the 8 knot current creates boils and eddies and lots of unpleasant stuff. It doesn't help that boulders line the sides of the narrow channel. Last night we pulled in to a small but very protected marina at Portneuf and walked to the little village for dinner.

We got an early start this morning and we entered our last lock, leading into this marina at the foot of the Old City, after about four hours of easy cruising.

Now the second leg of this trip, a 228 mile trailer ride to Hampden Maine will start with a new crew and then the boat will be launched again for the final leg down the coast of Maine and New England back to New York. It's been a great ride.